FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2011 file photo, a man stands near an advertisement for an Apple iPad in Shanghai, China. News reports say more Chinese cities have seized iPads from retailers due to a dispute between Apple Inc. and a local company over ownership of the tablet computer's name. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

Today: The Chinese company that claims to own the iPad trademark sues Apple (AAPL) in Santa Clara County, claiming the Cupertino company was duplicitous when it negotiated for the rights to the term. Also: The Dow can't stay above 13,000, but the S&P hits a high not seen since before the financial crisis as Gap and Salesforce head in different directions; and Cisco (CSCO) buys a Pennsylvania startup for $271 million.

Apple has been facing problems with iPad sales in China for the past couple of weeks, since a native company there convinced some cities to seize the popular tablet computers because of a court verdict that said Proview had the rights to the name iPad in China. Now, the court fight has moved across the Pacific to Silicon Valley.

A Proview spokeswoman told media members Friday that it had filed suit in Santa Clara County court earlier this month, claiming Apple was deceptive in negotiations dealing with the trademark in 2009.

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Apple secured what it thought was the rights to the iPad name in a deal with a Taiwanese subsidiary of Proview in 2009 for $55,000, according to the lawsuits taking place in China. Proview has beaten Apple in court twice by claiming that those rights were only relevant in Taiwan, not in mainland China -- the market Apple has targeted for continued growth. Apple has appealed the first ruling and won a different legal skirmish in Hong Kong, but Proview has convinced local authorities to seize iPads from retailers in four Chinese cities.

In a lawsuit filed here on Feb. 17, however, Proview opened up another front in its battle with Apple, seeking damages by claiming that the company was duplicitous when it originally negotiated for the rights to the name.

Proview claims in its lawsuit that Apple created a company called IP Application Development -- IPAD -- and told Proview that it would not be competing with the electronics firm when it bought the iPad name, which Proview used for an electronic product in 2000. Apple acted "with the intent to defraud and induce the plaintiffs to enter into the agreement," the lawsuit states.

Proview is in desperate financial straits, as its finances have fallen apart in the past few years and it faces delisting from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange later this year if it cannot get its business in order, which would be much easier with a large payout from Apple. Apple seems to be dug in for a legal fight against Proview, but a loss would severely hurt its plans for growth in one of the few markets not already saturated by Apple products.

"Given the current timeline, Apple would have the greater impetus to come to settlement simply because the ability to disrupt shipments is more immediate than the pressure faced by Proview and its potential delisting," Elliot Papageorgiou, a Shanghai-based partner and executive at law firm Rouse Legal, told Reuters.

While Apple was rising yet again, Wall Street's three main indexes were sitting relatively still, with the Dow Jones industrial average passing the 13,000 mark for the second day this week, only to again fall back below it before the end of the day.

The Dow has not closed higher than 13,000 since May 2008; it crossed that plateau Tuesday morning before falling in afternoon trading, then followed the same pattern Friday. The index closed for the day down a minuscule 0.01 percent, at 12,982.95.

The more varied Standard & Poor's 500 index, however, closed at its highest level since June 2008 on Friday, despite just a tiny 0.2 percent gain. The Nasdaq also gained 0.2 percent, and has been trading at levels unseen since the original dot-com bubble burst in 2000.

Two San Francisco companies showed the up-and-down nature of Friday's trading session.

Clothing retailer The Gap declined 4 percent after it reported that net income fell 40 percent year-over-year in the holiday shopping quarter. Investors punished the stock, even though analysts said it appeared the struggling company is on the right track. "The plan now seems more focused than it did before and they are trying to get the merchandise right," Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz told Reuters. "The proof is in the pudding, but they are at least moving in the right direction."

Meanwhile, enterprise cloud software company Salesforce zoomed up 9 percent after its earnings report showed a big increase in business due to new efforts in social-media analysis and customer support. "What's really driving this is that Salesforce has a platform of multiple products that customers don't get dead- ended by," UBS analyst Brent Thill told Bloomberg News.

Cisco returns to M&A pattern with purchase of Lightwire

Cisco got back to its pattern of acquisitions Friday, as CEO John Chambers recently promised. The San Jose networking-equipment giant agreed to buy a privately held Pennsylvania startup that makes optical technology for high-speed networking.

Cisco will pay about $271 million for Lightwire, the company said, which makes silicon chips that Cisco said will help its switching equipment transmit more data at a lower cost.

Chambers said at Cisco's most recent earnings report that he was ready to look to add to the company after completing a reorganization that involved scaling back quite a few parts of the company's business.

The move didn't help Cisco on Wall Street in Friday trading, as the company's shares declined 0.4 percent to close at $20.14.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Up 2.28, or 0.17 percent, to 1,365.74

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.